Corvette Racing: Ready for Road America

Road America has a quiet reputation as one of the great road courses in America. The 4 mile course near Elkhart Lake Wisconsin ranks high on the list of drivers for its fast straightawayâ€™s through the rolling hills as well as its 14 corners with challenging names like the Carousel and the Kink. For the two Ollies, they just recently ran a road course very similar to that of Road America. The #4 C6.R drivers were in Belgium for the 24 Hours of Spa, finishing 6th in the Luc Alphand Adventures Corvette C6.R.

“Road America is a little Spa,” said Beretta. “It has very high-speed corners, it goes up and down the hills, and of course there is the Kink. It is a wonderful place, one of the best tracks in America, and I’m very happy to go there.”
Gavin agreed: ” Road America is one of the last old-style, really challenging tracks that we race on,” said the Briton. “It’s quite open, it’s quite flowing, and it’s very fast. You’ve got good elevation changes, and some really demanding corners like the Carousel and the Kink. It’s picturesque, a great track to drive around, and one that I look forward to every year.”

For Jan Magnussen, this will be his first race at Road America in the Corvette C6.R. His last race came as a driver for a Ferrari 550 where he and co-driver David Brabham defeated the C5-R Corvettes in 2003.

“Road America has some really super-fast corners, and not many race tracks have fast corners anymore,” observed the Dane. “I’ve heard many racers say that it’s one of their favorite tracks, and I think that’s because it’s one of the last real race tracks that are left.
“The last time I raced at Road America was with a Ferrari 550 in 2003,” Magnussen recalled. “The Corvette C5-Rs were faster than us at that race, but somehow we managed to win. The C6.R is faster than the C5-R was, so I’m looking forward to driving it. Road America is always a good experience.”

This weekend’s Road America will be a little more interesting since the announcement that Doran Racing will be fielding a Maserati MC12 for the race. It was at the 24 Hours of Spa that Maserati came in second to a Corvette C6.R after giving up the lead following a spinout with one hour remaining. The final tally in the GT class at the 24 Hours of Spa had four Maserati MC12’s finishing in the top 7 positions in class whereas the four Corvettes (C6.R and C5-R) finished in the top 10.
The four-hour Generac 500 at Road America, the eighth round of the 12-race ALMS series, will start at 4 p.m. CDT on Saturday, August 11. NBC Sports will televise the race tape-delayed at 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, August 12.
Source:Motorsport.comRelated:Corvette Racing: Maserati to Challenge Corvettes at Road AmericaSpa 24: Corvettes Finish 1st and 3rdTechnorati Tags:Corvette |
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